Starr: Let's enforce a Golden Rule of immigration reform

By Kenneth W. Starr

Updated 7:37 pm, Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The immigration debate is now in full swing. Historically, the president's State of the Union address sets out his policy agenda; the party in opposition is given an opportunity to respond; pundits then weigh in on whether the president can achieve his goals. As debates are unfolding in Congress, one thing is clear: Partisan wrangling of the past several sessions may actually subside on this vitally important set of issues.

In particular, just a few short weeks ago, a bipartisan group of eight senators pledge to work together toward meaningful reform. With the president's call for immigration reform, there appears to be new life for this long-festering issue.

It will not be easy. Questions about border security, enforcement, visas for those with needed technological skills, and - most controversial - possible paths to citizenship for undocumented individuals will require both thoughtful analysis and wisdom. In the debate to come, however, one important dimension of the broader set of immigration issues is a highly attractive candidate for a bipartisan moment. It speaks to a bedrock human value cherished on both sides of the aisle. It is about children.

An American story: Angela is an outstanding young woman, full of promise. She is respected by her teachers and peers, active in her community, and on target to graduate this spring as her high school's valedictorian. Across the nation, some of our finest colleges and universities have Angela on their list as an attractive prospect for admission. But it is unlikely that she will go to college at all. The reason - Angela is undocumented.

When she was 7 years old, Angela's parents brought her to the United States across the Mexican border. They were (and are) undocumented. Angela remembers little about her early years in Mexico. Not surprisingly, she considers herself a typical American teenager.

Angela's undocumented status did not prevent her from excelling academically in her large public high school in Texas. But it will keep her from receiving federal financial aid - the only way her family can afford to send her to college. Even if Angela finds a way to pay for her education, she will likely be unable to obtain appropriate work upon graduation. It's a legal limbo with crushing practical consequences.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 65,000 young men and women like Angela graduate from America's high schools each May. Despite the very public presence of these children, federal authorities have long seen them as a "low priority" for enforcement actions. The result: Angela and her similarly-situated colleagues are, for all practical purposes, permanent residents of this country, but with strictly confined access to higher education and limited ability to work.

Holding Angela - and the estimated 1.5 million undocumented alien children in this country - responsible for their parents' illegal actions years earlier is fundamentally unfair.

Over 30 years ago, the Supreme Court, in the landmark case of Plyler v. Doe, guaranteed undocumented children the benefit of a free public primary and secondary education. While decrying the illegal activity of parents bringing innocent children into our country, our nation's highest Court was unwilling to hold little children responsible for their parents' actions. That is consistent with plain common sense - and fundamental notions of basic fairness.

Consider this: Suppose that 7-year-old Angela had been a passenger in the backseat of her parents' car when the vehicle is pulled over by state or local law enforcement for a traffic violation. The police officer would naturally hold the parent driving the car responsible, issue a citation and levy a fine. If the offense were serious enough, perhaps the parent's driver's license would be revoked. But under no circumstances would a reasonable person consider it morally right for the government to hold Angela - the child in the back seat - somehow accountable for her parent's traffic violation, no matter how flagrant. To do so would be unspeakably unjust.

Immigration in America is a vexing issue that continues rightly to draw the public's attention. As our nation considers the practical costs and benefits of various proposals now coming forward, we should not lose sight of a profound moral question: Should undocumented children literally face a lifetime of punishment for a crime they did not commit and which, at the outset, federal law enforcement made utterly inadequate efforts to prevent? Fundamental principles of freedom and justice - and plain common sense - cry out that the answer is no.

Call it the Golden Rule of immigration reform. Let men and women of good will agree to that reform, and then go on from there to face other issues. Angela - and tens of thousands of others like her - deserve simple justice.

Starr is president of Baylor University and is a former solicitor general and U.S. Circuit Court judge.